Sony World Photography Awards 2017

For this year’s iteration of the Sony World Photography Awards, Chinese photographers dominated across multiple Professional categories of the competition. More Chinese photographers were represented on the list of finalists and grand prize winners than any other countries in the world. In the Professional Architecture category, Dongni, a creative director from the city of Shenyang, took the grand prize with Space & City, a striking photo series that deconstructs and reconstructs the urban landscape to form her vision of modern cities, all presented from a birds-eye vantage.

In the Professional Sport category, Yuan Peng, a member of the China Photographers Association, took the grand prize with his documentary photo series The Twins’ Gymnastics Dream, which offers an intimate look at the hopes and struggles of Liu Bingqing and Liu Yujie, two young twin sisters in the Shandong province who have grown up and trained together in a Chinese sports school since the age of five.

Meanwhile, the Sony World Photography National Awards segment of the competition is now in its fourth year. This program, which aims to discover the best photographs taken by local photographers across the world, has expanded its scope this year to include the countries of Cambodia, Nepal, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, and the United Arab Emirates for the first time, allowing even more talented photographers to showcase unique perspectives of their respective regions. Scroll down and check out some more of our favorite shots from around Asia from this year’s competition.